US campaign songs stir millions, deter some

WASHINGTON: Ever since 1789 when George Washington used a marching ditty about his military prowess as he bid to be the country’s first president, the campaign song has been part of the US presidential race.

And to borrow from British rock group Led Zeppelin the song remains the same this year, even if the presentation and message have changed.

“Candidates have four or five songs. They use different songs in different parts of the country, to appeal to a specific demographic: more country music in the south, maybe more rock in the north, maybe have a Latino influence in the southwest,” said musicologist Mark Clague from the University of Michigan.

“Often what happens is that songs get chosen for the energy and ideas they bring,” Clague said.

The origins of the musicians and the lyrics are overlooked.

Barack Obama, who is running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party’s nominating race, appeared at his victory rally after the Iowa caucuses to the tune of “City of Blinding Light” by Irish rockers, U2.

Iowa runner-up John Edwards, who has since dropped out of the race, addressed his supporters to the strains of another U2 song, “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, while Clinton chose a song by Canadian singer Celine Dion as her official campaign tune.Some conservatives have accused the Democratic candidates of outsourcing their music, while others have questioned why the candidates are associating with foreign bands.

Then, there’s the overlooked lyrics issue. Buoyed by his surprise win in Iowa, Obama played Stevie Wonder’s version of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” at the next primary in New Hampshire. He finished behind Clinton there.

“That lyric was jumping the gun a bit. Often, the campaigns make really dumb choices because they don’t listen to the song,” Clague said.

Clinton has regaled her backers with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “American Girl”, doubtless to evoke the image of a patriotic, down-home candidate.

But the lyrics tell an altogether different story of seeing a dream slip away: “God, it’s so painful/ Something that’s so close / And still so far out of reach.” Probably not quite the message Clinton meant to send in her close-quarters fight with Obama for the nomination.

Tom Massaro, a professor of politics at the State University of New York, recalled a similar false note struck by George Bush Senior, a Republican, when he chose Woody Guthrie’s popular anthem, “This land is your land”, as his campaign song.

“No one ever goes beyond the first couple of verses of the song, which are about the wide open spaces of America. But it’s really a Marxist anthem,” he said.

Probable Republican nominee John McCain was playing songs by John Cougar Mellencamp early on in this year’s campaign, but was asked to alter his playlist by the rock musician, who is an avowed Democrat.

Republican challenger Mike Huckabee has an official uplifting song called “Because of You”, but has been known to jam to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” on his bass guitar at rallies.

Clinton had the revolutionary idea of letting the general public choose her main campaign song, giving them the choice of nine songs and a blank space where they could propose a song.

“The idea was to make the choice of campaign song a democratic process, but it had a couple of unintended consequences,” Clague said.

Someone proposed “You and I”, a tune with somewhat vapid lyrics by French-Canadian warbler Dion that eventually won.

“But people also wrote in suggestions like ‘Maneater’,” Clague said.

The true musical revolution in this year’s campaign has come in the form of YouTube and other digital media.

Will.i.am, the frontman and producer of the Black Eyed Peas, was so inspired by the speech Obama gave in New Hampshire that he set it to music and rounded up some celebrity friends to make a video.

The result, the “Yes We Can Song”, has had millions of hits on the Internet since it was posted a little over one week ago.